951 



be most abundant species ; together they constitute the Polypodium 

 cristatum of Hudson, the Aspidium dilatatura of Smith and Babing- 

 ton, and the Aspidium spinulosum of Hooker. It will doubtless be 

 objected, by some of our readers, that the old names should have 

 been retained in preference to those with which we are comparatively 

 unacquainted. On this point we are disposed to join issue : we sub- 

 mit that it is impossible to decide, from a Latin description of two or 

 three lines, which of these species was the spinulosum of Mliller or 

 the dilatatum of Hoffmann; and we think Mr. Newman has done per- 

 fectly right in adopting for each the earliest name which combines the 

 two postulates of being accompanied by an intelligible description, 

 and of being confined to a single species. This practice is some- 

 what stringent perhaps, but it is certainly wholesome. On the two 

 next pages we introduce figures of Lastraea multiflora and L. recurva 

 as the two species which possess the greatest claim to be considered 

 additions to the British Flora. Circumscription of frond is a point 

 strenuously insisted on by the author, as separating these species ; 

 since, however it may approach in young specimens, it recedes in those 

 which are mature : but add to this that the involucres, the scales, the 

 glands, the scent, the venation, the form of pinnules (in one convex 

 in the other concave), are all widely and unvaryingly different, he in- 

 deed were a bold man who, after going into such a mass of evidence, 

 shall utterly reject the inferences, and again blend these two species 

 with the third (L. spinosa) under a single name. We must not, how- 

 ever, be understood as expressing any decided opinion that Mr. New- 

 man's species will be generally or rapidly adopted. We are too well 

 acquainted with the disinclination there is to adopt the views of a 

 new man (the pun is quite unintentional) — to enter on the difficult task 

 of careful collation and examination, except under the banner of au- 

 thority : it is only by degrees, and through the exercise of the most 

 perfect candour, that conviction will reach the mind of the enquiring 

 botanist. 



With regard to the species which we hold as the most important 

 addition to our Flora — Lastraea recurva — Mr. Newman has already 

 strong opponents, as will appear from the following paragraph. 



" When I first saw this beautiful fern in the North of Ireland, I was in company 

 with Mr. William Bennett, and I instantly pronounced it a species new to Britain. I 

 traced it in many of the Irish counties with the same feeling of certainty ; and it was 

 only in deference to the judgment of three distinguished botanists, the late Professor 

 Don, Mr. Moore of Dublin, and Mr. Babington of Cambridge, that I at last aban- 

 doned ray opinion, and consented to give the species as a variety of dilatata. Profes- 



